STAMFORD — OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong remain at odds over a company plan to pay more than $40 million in employee bonuses, as a bankruptcy court judge reviews the proposal.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Judge Robert Drain is likely to schedule a hearing and make a decision next month on the prospective payments. Tong and about two dozen other state attorneys general have contested the proposed bonuses, which they said would diminish the funds needed to tackle the opioid crisis. Purdue has argued, however, that the payments are necessary to maintain operations and prevent mass departures at a company that has shrunk its workforce by about 65 percent since 2017.

“This is just not business as usual, and the fault for that lies with Purdue and the Sacklers (who own the company),” Tong said in a statement Monday. “As a Stamford resident, I am always mindful of the impact of these proceedings on local employees — many of whom have no responsibility for the misdeeds of their employer. But my focus has to be on stopping the opioid epidemic and securing the necessary resources for addiction science, treatment and recovery.”

Purdue declined to comment this week on its plan, but it has previously defended the proposal.

“These programs are essential to retaining employees who are critical to preserving the value of the company for the ultimate benefit of the American public,” it said in an earlier statement. “Denying people who are doing important work under extremely challenging conditions their fair compensation would cause them to leave and destroy the value of the company, which will benefit no one.”

Purdue and Rhode Island-based Rhodes Associates, which is also owned by Sackler family members, have proposed paying “certain” unnamed employees next year a total of $26.5 million for “annual incentive plans.”

In addition, the companies run “long-term results plans” for some employees. They intend to distribute next year through that program $7.9 million at Purdue and $1.4 million at Rhodes.

Drain has allowed the continuation “only on an interim basis” of bonuses intended to help keep about 120 employees who are not top-level executives.

Those payments would be worth $1 million to Purdue employees and $900,000 to Rhodes workers this year, and about $6.7 million to Purdue workers and $1.7 million to Rhodes employees in 2020.

In addition, Drain’s order prohibited “any amounts on account of severance obligations to former employees.”

It was not immediately clear how many people would be affected by the severance decision.

In filings last month, Purdue enumerated about $1.15 million in planned severance payments. From that total, $660,000 was allocated for workers at its facility in Durham, N.C., which it has agreed to sell to Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.

The company has said that “fewer than 80” work at the Durham plant, with “approximately 14” positions set to be cut as a result of the sale.

Purdue earmarked another $485,000 in severances “on account of other employees.”

John Taormina, a former Purdue employee, wrote to Drain last week that the company’s HR department had told him that ‘until further notice” he would not receive his final seven weeks of severance.

‘Seven weeks may not sound like much, but since my unemployment benefits have ended, my family and I count on these funds until I find a new permanent position,” Taormina wrote. “My COBRA (health insurance) payments alone are in excess of $800 per month, so losing the severance pay is very distressing for us.”

About 500 employees remain with Purdue, including slighter fewer than 250 based at its downtown Stamford headquarters, according to court filings and company statements.

In comparison, about 1,100 worked for the firm at the start of 2018.

Several hundred employees were laid off last year as part of the disbanding of the company’s sales force. Widespread attrition has further reduced the ranks.

Correction: Any earlier version of this article misstated a bankruptcy court judge’s ruling on Purdue Pharma’s proposal to pay out more than $40 million in employee bonuses. He has not mostly denied the plan. He is likely to schedule a hearing and make a decision next month on those payments.

Paul Schott is a business reporter at Hearst Connecticut Media, writing about the issues affecting small- and medium-sized businesses and large corporations based in southwestern Connecticut, with a focus on Stamford and Greenwich. He previously covered education for Greenwich Time and general assignments for the Westport News. Paul welcomes readers' ideas and suggestions and strives to cultivate a robust dialogue with Hearst Connecticut Media's audience.